Hello everyone,
I have an old pentium 4 PC with CD drive, 1GB RAM and no hard drive, I usually boot OK from live CD but now the computer refuses to boot Puppy, it detects USB drives but does not detect the CD inserted. I tried setting the BIOS again, selecting boot device manually, and the screen shows this message: "Reboot computer and set boot device, or select boot device and press a key." No results. Am I doing something wrong?_________________OB Precise 15.01 kernel 3.17.7|Puppy Linux en españolLast edited by vicmz on Sat 29 Sep 2012, 17:44; edited 1 time in total

I'd say your CD drive died. How do you feel about opening up your computer and replacing it? It's always pretty easy to do--once you've figured out how. Usually the only tool required is a #2 Phillips screwdriver. Of course, you want to find a working CD (or better yet, DVD) burner to replace it with. And the replacement has to use the same connection, either EIDE or SATA. You'll have to take the cover off the computer to see what's in there now.

Yeah, I'm looking for a working CD drive now, and while I find it, I'm also doing my first attempts to install to a flash drive. I can't get to boot from USB, the screen says "boot error". I can't post more info right now, I'm posting from my phone, but any tips on the USB install department are much appreciated.

On some vintage computers (like my 12 year old p3 desktop), usb boot is not an option - check the BIOS to see if the option is available.

On replacing the optical drive - like Flash says it's fairly simple, I'd recommend also taking antistatic precautions when the case is open (like a clip-on wrist strap for grounding yourself to the chassis) .. better safe than sorry

As long as you're working with one hand on the chassis, you don't really need a wrist-strap.

Even that is usually unnecessary -- I rarely bother with any antistatic protection (other than not working on the carpet) and I've yet to have trouble. I'm a hardware person, to boot -- it's what I do.

On some vintage computers (like my 12 year old p3 desktop), usb boot is not an option - check the BIOS to see if the option is available.

On replacing the optical drive - like Flash says it's fairly simple, I'd recommend also taking antistatic precautions when the case is open (like a clip-on wrist strap for grounding yourself to the chassis) .. better safe than sorry

Thanks. Yes, an option to boot from USB is available, but either the BIOS is quirky or my install fails. I formatted my flash drive to ext4, I tried installing Wary, Slacko and Lucid. I used both the Universal Installer and Bootflash. The part when I have to install the grub is the most difficult, it gives error messages. I also tried unetbootin from Windows, the boot error remains. As far as replacing the CD drive, there seem to be no CD drives in local shops, I may have to request one.

where DEVICE=sdb PARTITION=1something like that ..
gives some messages about dpkg-* not installed ..
which doesn't matter at all ..
should install fine ..
BUT BUT BUT :
does not create a /boot/grub/menu.lst on /mnt/${DEVICE}${PARTITION} ..
which probably can be created self like

Also, format the flash drive as ext3 or maybe 2. I think Puppy doesn't boot so well from ext4.

Problem is with grub-legacy Debian based : Debian based grub legacy is not patched/upgraded to support ext4 .. since Puppy Precise is out . Better use the older Puppy grub legacy from some iso ifso-then .

I finally managed to replace my CD drive with a nice DVD burner and boot Puppy from DVD, I'm posting this from Puppy on my machine right now. My family can't believe my computer works without a hard drive!
I'll keep on practising my USB-direct install skills, just in case.
Thank you so much for your help.

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